Artists: Sell Your Art on Your Blog and Make More Money

There are many options available to sell your art. You can go the traditional route and sell your paintings or sculptures in an art gallery. Art galleries are great and serve their purpose well. They promote your work and find buyers for your art. They also take a large percentage of your profit. But sometimes an artist wants to keep his/her independence and hard-earned money. I can show you another way to sell your art so you can charge what you want, keep all of the profits and keep your independence as well.

One way to sell your own art is to create a blog, and sell your art directly from there. First, you will need to create your blog. You can get a free blog at Blogger, or one of the other free blogging sites. Free blogs are a great option if you are trying to save money. If saving money isn't an issue for you, it is best to create your own blog with your own domain. It is easier to promote your own domain, because it will be easier to remember, and easier to put on business cards or other types of advertisement.

I like Blogger because it is easy to load pictures, which you will of course need to do if you are planning to sell your own art on your blog. Take good pictures of your paintings or sculptures. Upload pictures of each piece of your art, and use one post for each piece you are trying to sell. You can, and should, write other posts in your blog, maybe about your creative process, works in progress and other things about your art and your life. You are trying to attract visitors to your blog and keep them there. Use your social networking skills. Get links. Post on other artist's blogs, post in forums, get your name out there. Make friends!

You will need to set up a process to take orders from customers. One way to accept payments is through Paypal. You can easily add a Paypal Donate Button to your blog, and just ask your customers to pay that way. If you want to set up a Paypal button, make a Paypal account (if you don't already have one) and log into your account. In the Merchant Tools section, click on the heading for Accepting Website Payments. Then click on Donations. There will be information you will be asked to provide. Fill it out, and then click on Create Button Now.

You will be provided with html code, which you can copy and paste in your blog. In Blogger, this is easily done. Log into your blog, and from your Dashboard, click on Layouts. You will see a page called Add or Arrange Page Elements, and you can paste the Paypal code into your Blogger template where you want it.

You don't have to use a Paypal button to accept payments. This is your blog, and you can do whatever you want with it. You can accept checks if you want, or money orders. You can even take cash if you want. It's all up to you.

Because you aren't selling in a gallery, it will now be necessary to be in charge of the entire selling process. You will need to find your own customers, do your own promoting, and processing and shipping your own orders. But at least you will be in control of your own art, making your money for you to enjoy.